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Diario de Cuba detected 22 diction mistakes in Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s 17-minute speech to the “Non-Aligned”. Sometimes confuses the letter “r” and the “l”. A huge mistake in the field of homophony or paronymy. Díaz-Canel confuses the Spanish verbs “propiciar” (propitiate in English) and “propinar” (to give in English). Nor does he know that “neoliberalism” does not exist. It is an empty label used by socialists of all kinds to disqualify their adversaries. What really exists is some sensible economic measures. Let’s make clear that liberalism is, first, a moral conviction; secondly, a legal issue; and, finally, certain economic proposals arising from experience. It is not about the disappearance of the State; it is about the State doing well the tasks we have entrusted to it. Regarding health and education, it is very important to strengthen them as a joint effort of society, but without placing them directly under state control. That is the true distinction between liberals and socialists. We liberals think that individuals are able to make personal decisions better, while socialists are sure that it is preferable that the State makes that selection. This does not mean that individuals always make the right decisions. To err is human, but much more human is to persist in error.
From Hong Kong to Chile, from Syria to Haiti, from Mexico to Catalonia, violent protests have engulfed daily life generating an expansive wave of destruction that seems to unleash a heretofore unknown civil wrath against the very system that has created the longest period of stability and prosperity ever known.
Bolivia’s people are in civil resistance to regain their freedom and democracy, something achievable with unity, the international disavowing of the usurper in this electoral sham and appealing to the Armed Forces and Police. Evo Morales and his regime are arrogantly, shamefully, publicly and openly, perpetrating the crimes of electoral fraud, perversion of the course of justice, material and ideological falsehood, use of counterfeited instruments, criminal affiliation, misuse of governmental positions, attempting against the public trust, and more. This is not a Bolivian, or domestic way of doing things. It is “Castrochavism”. People vote, but they do not elect and when crimes are discovered, they simply go ahead with additional crime. Bolivian people are in a “defenseless state” due to the absence of the rule of law and the absolute inexistence of the separation and independence of the branches of government. In this uneven fight the national unity around the opposition’s political and civic leadership is indispensable. The world’s democracies must back Bolivian peoples’ fight to regain freedom and democracy by disavowing the 20th of October’s electoral results. Unity in the message: “Evo has got-to-go”
Dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have shown they are a group willing to commit all necessary crime in order to indefinitely remain in power, To the cliché “Venezuela is not Cuba”, another cliché “Nicaragua is not Cuba” was coined, and now you even hear “Bolivia is not Venezuela” and “Colombia is not Cuba” or “Argentina is not Venezuela” or “Ecuador is not. . .” and in Chile there were no denials of this type because they had never ever imagined to have happened what is now happening there. At the terminal stage of weakness, the CastroChavism system has it appears to be replicating the Nazi Strategy known as “the Ardennes’ Offensive” a strategy with which they stopped and almost defeated the allied forces. It is neither posible, nor recommended, to enter into a covenant with crime because this violates the law, subverts public order, and sows one’s own defeat. CastroChavism’s offensive against democracies is an operation of a weakened group, but it will sustain itself and will continue if democracies do not accept the imperative choices; either put an end to dictatorships or continue enduring the consequences. In the meanwhile, the question remains; who is next?
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicated “Organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world’s foremost economic and armed powers,”. He was yet to experience Culiacan where a plainclothes army disrupted the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, son and business heir to el CHAPO currently serving a life sentence in the US. In 12 minutes, the Guzman army was able to paralyze Culiacan; isolate the army platoon that had arrested Ismael Guzman; rendered impossible the arrival of support from the Mexican army. Truth of the matter is that Culiacan will enter history as the event that laid plain and clear an ugly reality that most would like to continue ignoring, organized crime is a geopolitical reality that can confront and defeat a nation state. International demand for drugs, arms, money laundering, counterfeiting, illicit trade in stolen goods, pornography, terrorism, and computer-related crime, generate enough resources to support the commanding center. Should the events in Culiacan not produce a revisiting of international rules preventing the internationalization of law enforcement, the strengthening of the UNCTOC and the change in the rules to establish nation states the fight against organized crime seems to be uphill.
The presence of American troops in Northern Syria constituted a deterrent factor against ISIS and against Turkish aggression against our allies. The Kurdish militias gave their soul and their lives to fight ISIS. By appealing to the principle of “ending the endless wars,” the United States gives the appearance of being fearful of military confrontation. If we decide, as the major superpower in the world, to abandon our allies and withdraw from world affairs, the Russians and the Chinese will step in. the U.S. isolationist approach will have repercussions not only in the Middle East but in other places such as Asia and Latin America. “Patriotism over globalism,” “America First,” and “Ending the endless wars” could mean precisely the opposite and this is dangerous for our image, for our national security, and for our domestic and national well-being.
The crisis in Venezuela is already having major regional consequences. Two events highlight the drama. the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Colombian guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN), The second event is that is the ratcheting up of repression by Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega who refuses to accept the demands of protestors. The files indicate that these guerrilla groups would play a dual role. First they would operate as an asymmetric force to protect the regime, namely as a para-military group. The other is that such groups would help expand the revolution abroad. The FARC dissidents, the ELN, and Hezbollah operatives in Latin America may increase their role in determining the future of the region by protecting and encouraging rogue regimes that also support their drug trafficking and criminal activities. The Western Hemisphere, the neighborhood in which we live, is becoming a more unpredictable and dangerous region. The first step to fight this is to secure the downfall of Mr. Maduro and his rogue regime. The more this step is postponed, the more problems will multiply.
Henrique Salas Römer decided to take challenge and wrote El futuro tiene su Historia ( The Future has History) a book that resorting to generational theory aims at explaining Latin Americans the nature and content of recent changes that have taken several countries several decades or even a century back as seems to be the case of his home country Venezuela. Henrique Salas Römer’s book adds to generation theory the figure of the Black Swan. This are what could be described as the leaders of counter history. That is to say, the unexpected leaderships that turn the course of history. Blacks Swans announce the end of an era, but they do not build the subsequent structure. Clearly his country Venezuela is living those days that see the Black Swan but not yet the ascent of a new cycle. And while the region awaits this development it can use the book as roadmap.
The attack that is taking place against the people and the government of Ecuador is not a matter of internal politics, it is a transnational attack perpetrated by the most dangerous group of organized crime that holds political power in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, a group that for ten years, oppressed Ecuador with Rafael Correa as dictator. CastroChavism is “the Transnational Organized Crime’s system that usurps political power that must be dealt with as an organized crime’s structure and not as a political process. The crisis in Ecuador unleashed by Castroist Chavist terrorism has the conditions to last a few weeks longer, but it is already defeated because it is a foreign attack and has awaken the peoples’ indignation. Through blood, sweat, and tears, Ecuador will defeat Castro Chavism’s attack and the government will come out of this strengthened, but for the organized crime’s group that threatens Americas’ democracies, it will continue with attacks, violence and crime. The questions are; until when? and who is next?
Once again, Ecuador’s president favorably surprised everyone by eliminating the State’s subsidies to fuels. Lenin Moreno has turned out to be the transitional president wished by all countries who want to abandon the Castroist Chavist dictatorships in the Americas. Once elected and already in the presidency, Moreno betted for democracy and took-on the task of dismantling the dictatorship thus making Correa and Castro Chavism his enemies. From being Correa’s dauphin, Lenin Moreno has become the restorer of democracy in Ecuador and, furthermore, the reconciler of an economy left bankrupt, in shambles and in crisis by his predecessor due to his centralized, corrupt management. Moreno is fixing one of the severe consequences of Correism. It is the extraordinary moment for the people from Ecuador to defeat Organized Crime and the leaders from the opposition to prove their intelligence and commitment to democracy.
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